Nail clippers typically include first and second plate members that are joined together at one end, and having a pair of jaw portions at the opposite end thereof, and an operating lever coupled to the plate members for moving the jaws from an open position to a nail cutting position. The first and second plate members of such conventional nail clippers are made of polished metal materials, and usually have narrow tip portions onto which the thumb and other fingers are to be properly placed to cut finger nails or toe nails of the user. As the metallic tip portions of the plate members are often slippery, and it is burdensome and uncomfortable for the user to securely hold the nail clipper at the narrow and slippery tip portions thereof. As such, the user must operate the nail clipper with care in order not to get an accidental injury when nail cutting.
In an attempt to overcome such shortcomings or inconvenience in the conventional nail clippers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,960 to Tottenham proposed a nail clipper structure (see FIG. 8) with a pair of ring members 24 and 38 attached to the nail clipper 10. More specifically, in this nail clipper design, a first ring 24 is attached to the operation lever 20, and a second ring 38 is attached to the clipper body (i.e., the combination of 12 and 14) for facilitating easy grasping the nail clipper. One advantage of this nail clipper is that the use may grasp the nail clipper more securely as the thumb and another finger (generally, the index finger) are inserted into the two ring members, and thus, the nail clipper can hardly escape from the hand of the user, and reducing the risk of injury to the user. However, since this nail clipper allows only one finger (e.g., the index finger) to the bottom ring member, it is not ideal and causes inconvenience or discomfort to the user. This is at least because the pressure that is put solely on one finger (e.g., index finger) can cause discomfort on the finger. Moreover, as each of the rings is formed with one ring member, the contact areas for the fingers (namely, the contact area at the tip of the connection pin 16 to which the rings are attached) are limited in space (see FIG. 8). Thus, this nail clipper can produce excessive pressure onto the respective contacting fingers (i.e., the thumb and the index finger) that are respectively inserted to the two ring members for operation. In addition, as two fingers (i.e., the thumb and the index finger) of the user's hand are required to be inserted to the two rings 24 and 38, the gripping posture for grasping the nail clipper is limited by this restriction, and thus, this causes inconvenience to the user.